Luke Fickell is in how much trouble?


Enjoy your Schaudenfraude gopher fans! Fickell has been unlucky with starting QBs injured both years, Van Dyke only played the first 2 games. How would Minny have done this year if Brosmer blew out his ACL 3 snaps into game #3? Locke should not be playing Division 1 football and the whole team knows it. Most reasonable fans are willing to give him the full 4 years but he has to nail the OC hire.
LMAO.....acting as if Van Dyke was some kind of ringer QB.....he was so bad at Miami he got run out of town after his 3rd season.
 


Enjoy your Schaudenfraude gopher fans! Fickell has been unlucky with starting QBs injured both years, Van Dyke only played the first 2 games. How would Minny have done this year if Brosmer blew out his ACL 3 snaps into game #3? Locke should not be playing Division 1 football and the whole team knows it. Most reasonable fans are willing to give him the full 4 years but he has to nail the OC hire.
I watched Van Dyke blow game after game at Miami. I don't think he would have been the above average QB you are suggesting.
 

I watched Van Dyke blow game after game at Miami. I don't think he would have been the above average QB you are suggesting.
Just average would have been a HUGE improvement. Locke is a great kid, very smart and a great teammate. He’s just not a D1 QB. Maybe he’ll be a coach someday.
 


Enjoy your Schaudenfraude gopher fans! Fickell has been unlucky with starting QBs injured both years, Van Dyke only played the first 2 games. How would Minny have done this year if Brosmer blew out his ACL 3 snaps into game #3? Locke should not be playing Division 1 football and the whole team knows it. Most reasonable fans are willing to give him the full 4 years but he has to nail the OC hire.
This is the Badger game is the most importantly. Badgers fans are a unique mix of arrogant and ignorant.

In your hypothetical scenario where injuries don’t exist in football, do we get to imagine “what if” the Gophers were healthy last year?

To answer your question, if Brosner didn’t play today, we probably win the game 17-7. You couldn’t move the ball and we could run the ball. If both Van Dyke and Brosmer played, we probably win 24-14. So yeah, you probably still lose by 10 points at home to an average Gopher team.

Fickell will not survive another 5/6 win season. It’s 50/50 he survives a 7 win season next year.
 

Fickle recruited solid P4 talent to a non-P4 conference and dominated. Just like Frost. Now he’s recruiting at a similar level and getting beat up in a P4 conference. Just like Frost.

He’s doing everything the same and failing because it isn’t the same.

But, but, but... he runs a MODERN offense!

I've been told, repeatedly, that a MODERN offense solves all problems.
 

This is the Badger game is the most importantly. Badgers fans are a unique mix of arrogant and ignorant.

In your hypothetical scenario where injuries don’t exist in football, do we get to imagine “what if” the Gophers were healthy last year?

To answer your question, if Brosner didn’t play today, we probably win the game 17-7. You couldn’t move the ball and we could run the ball. If both Van Dyke and Brosmer played, we probably win 24-14. So yeah, you probably still lose by 10 points at home to an average Gopher team.

Fickell will not survive another 5/6 win season. It’s 50/50 he survives a 7 win season next year.
You are waaaay underestimating the impact of having the worst QB in the B1G for the entire season and the psychological impact on 18-22 year old teammates. The gophers may have been 3-8 or worse going into the Axe game. Whatever, we will never know.
 

But, but, but... he runs a MODERN offense!

I've been told, repeatedly, that a MODERN offense solves all problems.
Chryst in his last 3 seasons went 13-11 in the awful B1G West. He didn’t staff his recruiting department for almost an entire year. He needed to be shown the door.
 



Locked On Badgers weighs in:

My favorite part…”You lost tot a team with a mid to upper mid Big 10 defense”. Guy might want to check his stats again on a national level. Gophers were 9th in overall defense nationally going into the game. That’s not mid to upper mid buddy. These jack wagons live off their arrogance and past. So glad they got some egg on their face. You should have enjoyed your epic times more because you certainly deserve some misery like the Gophers have experienced (I know prior to Alverez, just saying).
 

Fickell gave 'em the old those who stay will become champions speech today. Probably the beginning of the end.
Saw that and to make it worse he directed it at fans too.
 

My favorite part…”You lost tot a team with a mid to upper mid Big 10 defense”. Guy might want to check his stats again on a national level. Gophers were 9th in overall defense nationally going into the game. That’s not mid to upper mid buddy. These jack wagons live off their arrogance and past. So glad they got some egg on their face. You should have enjoyed your epic times more because you certainly deserve some misery like the Gophers have experienced (I know prior to Alverez, just saying).
Those guys are good dudes and know ball. I attended UW from 1983-87 so I definitely appreciated the “good ole days”. “You can’t enjoy the peaks, until you have been in the valleys”. Our younger fans are learning this now.
 

Locked On Badgers weighs in:

Thanks for posting. The host is clearly frustrated (as I would be), but not ranting and raving.

He didn't dwell on the point, but in mentioning the rivalry aspect of the game, I wondered if in the era of the NIL and players moving more readily from program-to-program if rivalry games don't matter as much. When you had guys playing all four years in a program, disdain for the opponent in a rivalry game became ingrained in the team top-to-bottom. I wonder if that edge has been lost a bit.
 



Fickle recruited solid P4 talent to a non-P4 conference and dominated. Just like Frost. Now he’s recruiting at a similar level and getting beat up in a P4 conference. Just like Frost.

He’s doing everything the same and failing because it isn’t the same.
If Wisconsin played in the American they’d probably be like 10-2 right now though…..
 


You are waaaay underestimating the impact of having the worst QB in the B1G for the entire season and the psychological impact on 18-22 year old teammates. The gophers may have been 3-8 or worse going into the Axe game. Whatever, we will never know.
I feel your pain but, I think the Iowa qb situation is arguably worse.
 


Honeymoon is over for Fickell in Badgerland. He will still get some time to right the ship but at the moment they look an awful lot more like Nebraska under Frost as opposed what they used to be when they were one of the top teams in the West and just outside the top teams in the conference.
 

Agree. But Iowa has Kaleb Johnson and a Phil Parker coached D with NFL dudes

Iowa's D was pretty weak this season. Easily their worst in a decade and probably the worst since Phil Parker took over at DC.
 

Those guys are good dudes and know ball. I attended UW from 1983-87 so I definitely appreciated the “good ole days”. “You can’t enjoy the peaks, until you have been in the valleys”. Our younger fans are learning this now.
If “ifs and buts were candy and nuts” Stuck in Indy would be king of the world…. Best arm chair quarterback and after the fact football genius ever. And unlike the average Badger fan, he MAY have actually attended UW…. 🙄
 



Iowa - L 42-10
Nebraska - L 44-25
Minnesota - L 24-7 (really good change they get shut out without that personal foul)
Fickell gets one more year. With brutal schedule ahead, he will be gone. BadgerNation is down. Fickell not a good fit.
 

I wonder if their fanbase has the patience for that considering their history of predictable success?
They went Air Raid and then fired the guy. Now what? He's not "in trouble" now but will have laser focus towards him once the OC decision is made. He needs to win 9+ next year or show some serious progress. Beat 1 or 2 of the front-runners would help. Never thought this was his ultimate destination though.....
 

Fickle recruited solid P4 talent to a non-P4 conference and dominated. Just like Frost. Now he’s recruiting at a similar level and getting beat up in a P4 conference. Just like Frost.

He’s doing everything the same and failing because it isn’t the same.
Wisconsin is in transition. Fickell has brought in 14 4* players in his first two classes. Fleck has brought in 5 4* players.
Hot take alert!
No alert needed, hottest of hot takes 🙄
 


Wisconsin has a lot of problems right now. It’s not going to get significantly better next year for them.

The level to which their fans are already out of patience is stunning. It’s hard to find a sympathetic take out there at all.
 

To put it simply, Fickell's hire at OC will likely determine his and Macintosh's jobs going forward. Expecting them out the door by 2026.
 


Wisconsin has a lot of problems right now. It’s not going to get significantly better next year for them.

The level to which their fans are already out of patience is stunning. It’s hard to find a sympathetic take out there at all.
Injury bug and an offense in transition. I think singing their demise is premature.
 




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